Kota Ibushi & YOSHIHIKO joined forces and traveled down to Chiba Blue Field to take part in yesterday’s K-DOJO show (No confirmation on whether YOSHIHIKO got a window seat or was stored as luggage on the train ride over). They battled with Kengo Mashimo & Ryuichi Sekine over the WEW Hardcore Tag Team Championships. As you can see by the name of the title, it was defended under Hardcore rules. YOSHIHIKO stole the spotlight with a balcony dive onto the champions. He also joined Ibushi up on top of a vending machine for a double dive when everyone brawled out of the arena. However, the challengers just couldn’t do enough to grab the win. Mashimo & Sekine turned the tables thanks to a ladder. The ending came when Sekine buried YOSHIHIKO under a pile of chairs, climbed the top turnbuckle and splashed onto his opponent.

Hikaru Sato’s tournament run for the year continues to struggle. He and Kikutaro finished sixth out of seven teams in the AJPW Jr. Tag League. Their only victories in the tournament were over the teams of Super Crazy & BUSHI, and MAZADA & Super Hate. Hikaru claimed the wins in both matches, submitting Super Crazy with the Flying Cross Armbreaker and pinning Hate with a High Kick. Sato’s next tournament will be the King Of DDT where a shot for the KO-D Title at Sumo Hall will be on the line.

Another day, another obscure championship. After a successful tour of Japan, New Beijing Pro Wrestling held an event in North China to celebrate the brand’s homecoming. Reports are coming in that Choun-Shiryu & Cao Zhang won a very prestigious championship during that show. Choun & Cao are now recognised as the Big China Unified Nakahara Tag Team Champions. Since ancient times, “those who controlled the belts would control the world,” which is why the title is held with high regard in New Beijing. Choun & Cao, along with the always lovely Princess Makoto, will show up at “GOLDEN UNION 2011” for their first match since becoming champions. They will take on Gaylon Summers, the American who debuted for Union back in March, and Union’s newest trainee, Hiroya Fukuda.

Kota Ibushi & Kenny Omega have been chosen to compete in this year’s Best Of The Super Jr tournament over in New Japan. Ibushi reached the final of last year’s tournament. He lost to Prince Devitt in a dramatic finale that saw Ibushi suffer a dislocated shoulder, an injury that has constantly plagued him ever since. Kenny finished fourth in his group but left a strong impression in his field, holding wins over Koji Kanemoto and Ryusuke Taguchi. Both of the Golden Lovers will be in seperate groups again when the tour begin on 26th May with the final happening on 10th June. Ibushi will be joined in his group by Daisuke Sasaki, who went through the NEVER Road to the Super Jr. 2 Day Tournament to earn his spot here.

There will be some DDT talent involved in K-DOJO’s “Golden Week Special” series at the end of April. Yasu Urano is a regular for the promotion as he trained at K-DOJO. He is currently the UWA Middleweight Champion and has just defended the belt against Venom Ant (The Colony’s non-union, Japanese equivalent?) on today’s show. He will now defend the belt against a mystery opponent on 1st May. DDT presents their version of the Mega Powers as Kota Ibushi & YOSHIHIKO team together to go after the WEW Hardcore Tag Team Title currently held by Kengo Mashimo & Ryuichi Sekine. Hikaru Sato will also appear on the tour with his SEX-MEN teammate Munenori Sawa as they take on HIROKI & Kengo Mashimo for the STRONGEST-K Tag Team Titles. Last but not least, Dick Togo will be in involved in two matches, the most important of them being the final match Kaientai*DX will have together before Togo’s retirement.

Finally, is love in the air for Kota Ibushi? It is according to a young and brash joshi hopeful named Yoshiko (No, not YOSHIHIKO). The 17 year old STARDOM wrestler apparently let slip that she wants to tie the knot with the shy Independent Genius. Not only that but she already has the date picked out: 24th July. That’s the same date as the DDT Sumo Hall show aswell as STARDOM’s first Korakuen Hall event. Is this just the hyper imagination of a lovesick teenager or will Kota take up the role of Prince Charming and sweep Yoshiko off her feet? I don’t know what Kenny will think of this. Kota & Yoshiko sitting in a tree…

Tsurumi Amon has some big prize in store for the winner of the Royal Rumble.

This will be Hikaru Sato’s first match outside of the show opener since his self-imposed curtain jerking status. It also happens to include Kota Ibushi as one of his opponents. It was Sato’s big win over Ibushi back in October last year that led to him beating HARASHIMA for the KO-D Openweight Title one month later. Sato has been using his partnership with Kikutaro at the AJPW Jr. Tag League to warm himself up. He already made his mark by submitting Super Crazy in a league match a few days ago. With Sumo Hall coming ever closer, can he springboard himself back into the title race?

Shuji Ishikawa approached Dick Togo after the main event. He told Togo that he represents Union and will not lose to a man who is about to retire. They butted heads and Togo reacted by punching Shuji in the face and dropping him to the canvas with a Pedigree. Togo then grabbed Shuji and pushed the KO-D Title belt to his face, saying that he will fight full blast against him on 4th May.

Antonio Honda & Michael Nakazawa did a promo referencing the Rowdy Roddy Piper movie, “They Live“. While wearing sunglasses Honda promised to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and he was all out of gum. That didn’t happen. During their match against HARASHIMA & HERO!, Yukinori Matsuri was knocked out. HERO! took advantage of this and used some un-heroic tactics to win the match, poking the eyes of both opponents and placing his feet on the ropes while pinning Nakazawa with a School Boy. HARASHIMA wasn’t so happy that his alter ego turned away from fair play but forgave him anyway.

Kota Ibushi & KUDO Vs Hikaru Sato & Daisuke Sasaki was announced for the 4th May Korakuen Hall show. Choun-Shiryu, Emi Sakura and the Brahman Brothers will also appear on the show.

Current KO-D Openweight Champion Dick Togo was in America during the weekend for one of the biggest events on the indy wrestling calander, the Chikara King Of Trios tournament. Togo travelled to Philadelphia with fellow Japanese stars The Great Sasuke & Jinsei Shinzaki to enter the tournament and represent Michinoku Pro. They made it to the semi-finals, beating two highly hyped teams along the way. On Night 1 Team M-Pro defeated Team Minnesota in the main event, which marked Sean Waltman returning to his roots and becoming the 1-2-3 Kid once again. Togo claimed the pinfall over Darin Corbin to send his team through to Night 2. There, Team M-Pro went over Mike Quackenbush, Jigsaw & Manami Toyota. Reports have it that Togo had no problem beating up joshi legend Toyota when they were in the ring together. But just when it looked like the tournament was there for the taking, Team M-Pro were defeated by Chikara’s most hated Rudos, Team F.I.S.T. DVDs of the event will be available from Smart Mark Video very soon.